Long Run - 21km (a bimble into town, and new music!)

dannewton just finished a 21.3km run, that lasted for 134 minutes.
This run helped dannewton burn 1610.0 calories.

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Description from Strava: 'tis another Saturday, and another long run. I am still taking it easy this week, and won't be going quite as far as I normally would. I'm still gonna aim for 20km though.

As for where to run, I've decided to head into town... there is a couple of things I want to pick up, and as most of it is on a regular bus route, I know that if at any point I need to cut the run short, I can just hop onto a bus which will bring me most of the way home

I don't think I'll need that, but after last summers misery spending 3 months to sort out a very minor calf strain, I'm erring on the side of caution

I'm not sure what these bulbs are, my partner suggests Glory-of-the-snow. They add a nice splash of Spring colour anyway!

And besides, Saturday means 'parkrun day' and its about time I checked in to my local one for a sociable 5km before I bimble further into town

well that was the plan at least!

Unfortuantl i slept in... not my fault I swear, I'm sure I set the alarm last night, but I don't remember turning it off this morning. Perhaps I was really tired?

Whatever the reason, I got up late. And so as parkrun was no longer on an option, I had to think of an alternative...

I still needed to head into town, and I still wanted to do approx 20km today. I decided to head towards Boultham Park (which is the location of the parkrun) but to then head in a different direction

Ccrossing the bridge and going straight would take me into Boultham Park, and if you look carefully in the above image, you might be able to make out a small yellow sign in the distance, warning passer-bys of the park run event taking place

It was 9:30 by this point, so the event was still running

I decided instead to cross the bridge, and then head right, to follow the path along the river

It was a smooth path, but quite quiet with only a couple of dog walkers

There was some wildlife to spot while passing through... there were 4 of the Canada Geese on the water (2 were out of shot of course) and you can also see a Little Egret, which was the white bird stood on the far side of the river

I usually see these on the sides of lakes, so here on the river bank is a little unexpected!

The route eventually took me into the heart of the city...

...and before I knew it, I was onto the high street itself...

Lincoln really is a shadow of its former self these days, with shop closures left, right and centre.

I very rarely come in to town these days, unless its for clothes shopping (as I hate buying clothes online) or to buy music

I don't need any clothes at the minute, so obviously I was here to buy new music.

The only place to buy any here in Lincoln is HMV, and I know we are lucky to still have a shop here, as several of these have closed down recently in other cities.

We used to have so many music shops here (MVC, Andy's Records, Virgin, there was even a nifty little independent retailer called Sonic Sounds, which mostly sold punk/rock/metal artists).

I bemoaned HMV when it first arrived as it seemed to be taking over, and now its the only one left. I now feel almost obligated to try to support it against the likes of Amazon. How times have changed!!

I did indeed buy 2 new albums today, see more on this below

I also bought a Greggs Sausage Roll as a mid-run treat!

With shopping completed (I didn't actually want much really!) it was time to head back out of time and head for home... I picked a different route on a whim, and came across the below tunnel.

It's not particularly noteworthy I know, but I've lived in/near Lincoln for the last 30 years, and had never been down here. It's been built to allow people to cross a very busy road (by walking under it) and I never even knew this existed!!

Anyway, I carried on running through the streets, and eventually back up the hill towards home

When I had nearly arrived back I suddenly realised I had only ran 15km, and I had wanted to do about 20km. So I carried on through the village and did a little loop around Waddington

please see picture of sign as proof that I did run to Waddington! 🤣🤣

With 21.2km on the watch, it was finally finished. It had taken over 2 and a half hours, but I hadn't been in a rush today. I just wanted a little bimble, a short meander, and I achieved that today. It was nice to tick off another increase in distance and I felt fine for the whole way round today, so as far as I'm concerned the recovey from last weeks exploits has been completed.

Next week I'll return to a more normal week (except I might hold off a little from the intensity of the speedwork session). My sights are now firmly set on the Marathon in Boston in April.

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As for the music?

I bought 2 albums today the first of which is 'Fall' from Borknagar. These are a Progressive Black Metal band from Norway, and really rather good. They used to be a more traditinal Black Metal outfit in thier earlier years, but now have incorporated a lot of progressive and folk elements into their sound. They even use plenty of clean vocals now.

Their previous album 'True North' was astonishingly good, so I bought this new release without any hesitation... this one isn't quite a easy to listen to on the first couple of listens, but I'm prepared to give it some time

'The Wild Lingers' is the most recent single realeased from the album, and is the closest they get to a 'ballad'

The second album is an album called 'Sky Void Of Stars' from Katatonia

I know these about this band other than they are stalwarts of the progressive doom genre. Much like how Borknagar changed from extreme black metal to a much more progressive sound, it appears that Katatonia have mellowed in the same way. From a Death/Doom origin, they are now much more progressive too.

I'll be honest, I don't know much about these guys, and I bought the album on the strength of the reputation and the artwork on the cover. I've been meaning to explore them in more detail for ages, so it looks like now is the time!

It is playing now (halfway through track 3) and so far, it sounds pretty interesting. I look forward to exploring this album, plus the Borknagar over the next week or so

In fact, my plan tomorrow is to potter around doing chores and catching up on missed messages etc... and I already have the soundtrack to listen to while I do this!

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If you would like to check out this activity on strava you can see it here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/10873221625

About the Athlete: Living in the UK, I am an intermittent Runner, but always striving for more consistency. When I'm not training I can be found photographing insects or listening to really loud angry music (which is the best type of music obviously!)

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